1.
Until a year ago, the expectations from the Israeli national team were sky high.
Many players in the industry dreamed of reaching the quarterfinals of the European Championship Cup for the first time since 2003, and the Basketball Association even marked qualifying for the World Championship after 37 years as a major goal.
That's when the ego comes into play.
Oded Ketch did not continue in his position because of the lawsuit he filed against the union during the Corona virus, and did not get a chance to lead the group he built and nurtured for four years.
Guy Goodes was appointed in his place and things started to go wrong.
In the first window of the World Championship qualifiers, the team did not impress, but won mainly thanks to the defense.
Since then we received neither defense nor attack, neither a clear style of play as we were used to with the previous coach nor composure, but a loss of temper that led to some irritating losses, which in fact caused an almost final loss of the chance to reach MundoBasket (you have to win 4 out of 4 to get the ticket ).
Guy Goodes
Will stand up to the challenge?, Photo: Photo: Alan Shiver
The preparation for the EuroBasket that started on Friday was not ideal either.
Some of the players arrived late for training, others fell ill with Corona and missed time from the preparation period, and despite the efforts made, the team members were unable to schedule practice matches against quality opponents.
In fact only two of the five warm-up games were against a reasonable opponent like Georgia.
This is perhaps also the reason that only in the games against Finland and Sweden the professional and mental problems surfaced in full force.
It is possible that if we had played against stronger opponents, it would have been possible to overcome the failures earlier.
Now it's a little late.
2.
After the stinging loss to Sweden, which was one of Israel's most embarrassing and painful at home in many years, the national coach who usually keeps his cool, said that there is no chemistry in the team (so what have we actually been doing in training for the last month or two?) and hinted at problems that go beyond professionalism.
Sources close to the national team claim that the root of the problem is professional and not social, but it also affects the energies, mood, cohesion and personal and group security.
The players of the national team against Sweden.
The problems are floating, photo: Alan Shiver
The professional team has so far failed to produce a clear hierarchy and build a rotation that will order the players, and also provide a good professional response on the field.
Some of the fives don't work, and the defensive solutions also collapsed with disturbing ease against a mediocre opponent like Sweden.
The bad defense against the Swedes raised big question marks around the summons.
John DiBartholomeo, the best guard at the guard positions (along with Yam Medar), the one who brings more war and Euroleague experience than any of the others, is removed from the roster.
The Jewish-American player could also help with shooting from outside the arc, but as mentioned he stayed in Tel Aviv.
Even Gabi Chachashvili, who showed good defensive abilities in the last season and in the summer league in the Golden State Warriors uniform, and can switch defenses and guard guards as well, was knocked out at an early stage and left the front line with mediocre guards at best and bad at worst.
Dibartholomew.
Should have stayed on Goodes' staff?
"Until a few months ago, we thought that Israel would fight against us for second place at home, now it seems that you will face Poland for fourth place," said one of the Czech journalists in Prague.
I answered him that even in the Israeli camp the feelings are similar.
Luckily for us, the Poles seem to be in no better shape than we are.
The Israeli team will land around noon in Prague and hope to embark on a new journey.
Goodes has already overcome quite a few challenges in his career, including in the last year when he was fired from Maccabi Rishon LeZion after a bad start to the season, and after a short time he came to Hapoel Holon, which he carried to the championship and the semi-finals of the Champions League.
The coming week will be one of the most challenging and important in his coaching career: not advancing to the round of 16 will be considered a major failure, and in a reasonable scenario may lead to the end of his role in the national team.
3.
In the Israelis' favorite European city, the festive atmosphere for the championship can already be felt.
In the Czech capital, they are excited about hosting one of the houses in the tournament, and they have something.
The local team recorded great achievements in the last decade with the Israeli coach Nano Ginzburg, and despite some bad results in the preparation, there is optimism that they can do beautiful things in this championship as well.
The organizers on behalf of FIBA say that thousands of local fans will fill the stands of the magnificent "02 Arena" and push their team.
Nano Ginzburg.
waiting for the Israeli group,
were we wrong
We will fix it!
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